Forgiveness
by penofjade
Summary: This is a one-shot I wrote after seeing a lovely picture of Sarah and Jareth. A new year means second chances...


A/N: I wrote this based off a lovely picture I found on dA. The link to the image is on my profile, if anyone is interested. Please enjoy!

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><p>Sarah was glad to be back home. The days she'd spent with her father and step-mother had been pleasant, but there was something about being in a place which was wholly <em>hers<em> that just made everything seem right. She'd missed seeing Toby...He'd gone to spend Christmas with some friends out west. It had been strange, celebrating with just the three of them.

Either way, upon returning to Maine, her soul had shaken a bit of the dust off. It was always that way when she visited the old Victorian of her childhood. Granted, there was something about the wildness of Maine's woods which stirred memories of long ago, as well...The places she kept locked away in her heart. But, one set of memories made her heart ache, the other made it soar.

Sitting in her small living room, she looked out into the softly falling snow. It looked so clean, so untouched. New Years Eve deserved snow like that...For once, the moon was bright in the sky as the old year drew silently to a close. Sarah wasn't one for big parties where everyone was either drunk or on their way to becoming so. She preferred the gentleness of a crackling fire with her cat curled at her feet. However, something drew her to the window. Standing there, she could see that the snow had stopped falling, although the moon was now turning it into molten silver.

Taken aback at the beauty of it, she gathered up a coat and hat, slipping her boots on as she pulled open the back door. Sinking into the snow, marking it indelibly, she moved out into the yard. Allowing her head to drop back, she gazed up at the sky, marveling at the sheer beauty and immensity of the heavens spread out above her.

Without realizing what she was doing, one hand rose up towards the distant drops of light. Sighing, she reminded herself that the stars were not hers to touch, to hold. They had been offered her once, long ago, by a man whom she had shunned without a thought. She let her hand fall, reaching to brush a tear or two away before the cold froze them to her reddened cheeks.

As her eyes followed her hand, she saw a shadow fly over her. Tracking its flight, she recognized it as a barn owl, its dark eyes fixed on her as it landed on a snowy stump. Her heart skipped for a moment, until she forcefully reminded herself not to be sentimental. He wasn't the only barn owl in the world, after all. Doing as she had done many times before, she moved towards the creature. Even though Sarah knew, in her head, that it was not him, she attempted to shoo it away. They only reminded her of what she had walked away from, _who_ she walked away from. And then she felt guilty, knowing that Toby was more important than _anything_ he could have offered her.

She was waiting for it to fly away, and fly it did, but not away. It swooped towards her until it landed gracefully right at her feet. There, kneeling in the snow, was a tall man with wind-swept blond hair. Before she could stop it, her hand drew back again, only this time it connected with a sound loud enough to echo through the still forest at his back.

Even at this, his head stayed bowed as he refused to meet her eyes. Sarah felt her chin begin to tremble as the proud man she had once stood before, once been afraid of, now knelt in the snow at her feet. She wanted to yell at him, but she seemed incapable of making a sound. She wanted to hit him again, but, after the first slap, her hands refused to move. She couldn't even walk away, for her body seemed locked in the strange embrace of his billowing, tattered cloak.

As the cuckoo clock on her mantle chimed a faint welcome to the new year, she heard him say, softly as falling snow, "I'm so sorry..."

She wanted to ask him _why _he was sorry. She wanted him to name each of the terrible things he'd done. She wanted him to look her in the eye and explain why he'd dared to come back.

When her mouth finally opened, however, she surprised herself by saying, "So am I." As the words left her mouth, she felt their honesty ring through her body. Even though he'd been mean and spiteful, so had she. It wasn't right for him to ask pardon if she did not do so as well. Leaning closer, she allowed her forehead to rest against his.

It was a new year and she was being offered the chance to make things right. Placing her hands on his shoulders, she added, "I forgive you, Jareth...for everything."

At her touch, his own hands tentatively reached up, landing gently on her wool covered hips. Meeting her eyes for the first time, he said, the sincerity obvious in his tone. "And I you."

Moving to stand, he pulled a familiar glass object into the air, holding it still as he drew her against him. Keeping his eyes on her as she watched the crystal, he said, as the snow once again began drifting down around them, "Let me give you the stars, Sarah..."

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><p>We all know she just wants him to say it...And for those of you who are fans of Pika-la-Cynique's "Girls Next Door" fancomic, we all know she's waiting for it there too ^.~ Reviews make me really excited!<p> 


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